Indyn is one of the four teams going through the Fast Start program, in collaboration with the GRDC. Indyn's unique machine vision system inspects and grades grains more accurately than humans - ensuring grain growers get paid fairly for their products. With a wealth of experience working internationally across sales, marketing, and engineering, Rob Martin - managing director of Indyn - shares Indyn's story and the defining lessons he's learnt throughout his career.
"Learn from every experience or encounter…there is always someone that knows more about any particular subject than you"
Tell us about Indyn. What problem in agriculture is Indyn trying to solve?
Natural products are difficult to inspect and grade. Grains and cereals are good examples. People have been grading and valuing grains since the ancient Egyptians. By human eyeball.
Today, it is still done the same way. The difficulty is that most inspectors are part time/ casual/ transient labour which is difficult to recruit, train and ensure QA standards are maintained. The result is disputes and the potential for quite large trading losses.
Indyn has developed the Platypus inspection platform to solve this issue. Initially focused on the grain industry, Platypus has applications in a wide range of natural products including fruits, berries, coffee, vegetables and others.
Platypus achieves this by combining the latest machine vision and photonics technologies with deep learning software tailored to image processing applications.
The objective is to establish Platypus as the ubiquitous source of digital quality truth within these industries.
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You’ve worn many hats working internationally across sales, marketing, and engineering. Can you tell us the 3 defining lessons you learnt during your career?
Keeping it down to three will be difficult. But here goes:- Do not let anyone tell you what you or cannot do. Only you can determine that.
- Nothing you learn, no experience gained is ever wasted. Try to learn from every experience or encounter. Always remember that there is always someone that knows more about any particular subject than you.
- If it isn’t fun, don’t do it. If it stops being fun, leave gracefully. Never burn bridges. It is amazing what goes around.
What do you hope to gain from the GRDC Fast Start program?
The industry we are attempting top enter is somewhat byzantine. Indyn has noted that several startups and new entrants have become “type cast” and been limited to certain sub segments within the market.
Indyn’s objective is to become a trusted supplier at all points in the supply chain. This will mean accurate market segmentation and focused business and communications planning at each crucial segment within the market.
Indyn can benefit from the skills and experience of the Cicada team, especially in the development of HAAS product offering and the creative use of social media and other platforms.
What do you hope to see Indyn achieve this year and how can our community help?
Realistically, Indyn wants to complete pilot programs in two market segments during the harvest cycle. In order to achieve this, several issues will require attention:- Complete pilot system design and specification.
- Develop strategic partnership programs with Grain Trade Australia, Dept of Agriculture, Water and Environment, GRDC, Ag. Victoria.
- Execute grant applications which leverage these partnerships and provide tangible benefits for all partners.
At a recent demo to industry, it was obvious that Cicada generates an image of technical innovation and expertise. Indyn wants to continue to leverage these aspects of our relationship.
What are you currently reading, watching or listening to that you would recommend to the community?
Well, being a “mature age student” at Cicada, I am not certain what I can add or recommend to our peers.
For the last thirty years I have been an avid reader of The Economist and I still regard that newspaper as a leading guide to the political and economic influences that might affect your business environment.
If you have a short attention span, try the Economist Espresso App or some of the podcasts.
When I am not doing that, I enjoy reading the classics. Recently read “Moby Dick” (Herman Melville), 1984 (George Orwell) and now reading Ulysses (James Joyce).
Any time left over I watch MotoGP and play some golf.
P.S. I do not recommend golf. It will most likely drive you insane.
